Black History Makers Today: Tori Franklin Has Her Sights Set On Making It To The Olympics

Tori Franklin's big natural hair stands out as she flies through the air. The Nike professional athlete is an American record holder. Get into her inspiring story about how she overcame every obstacle set up to make her fail.

Senior year of college at Michigan State didn’t go as planned for Tori Franklin. Despite finding her footing as a track and field athlete, Franklin fell into a deep depression. after she suffered through a domestic violence incident with her ex-boyfriend. She failed her classes and it tremendously affected her competing skills. She finished her senior year without a sponsorship or financial support. But a move to Chicago would provide a breath of fresh air and new opportunities. Franklin found a couch and with the support of her family, landed a Nike sponsorship.

“Through affirmation things just slowly got better,” Franklin revealed in a candid chat as she reflected on childhood times that were reminiscent of the incident she faced in college. “In my childhood that had happened a lot from people who clearly didn’t care about me. I felt like I had a good enough relationship with [my ex] that he would never do anything to violate me in that way.” The shock of the incident left Franklin crying for months. “I realized I couldn’t live my life that way.”

Source: Tori Franklin / Tori Franklin

Franklin’s athletic career began at a young age. “I’ve always been an active child,” she explained. “Jumping around on the jungle gym, I did karate to dance classes, basketball, track and field, cross country for a little bit.” In high school, she found out just how far sports could take her. “I was told that I could pursue this in college and it would pay for my education and I was like, I’ll stick with this.” But she didn’t realize her own star potential until her freshman year in college.

“I was able to qualify for nationals. I didn’t even know what nationals meant.” Franklin joked. She might not have know what the competition was, but she placed third and “it just went up from there.” She set her eyes on making it to the Olympics. “That became my goal. I wrote Olympics 2016 on everything. Everything.”

Source: Tori Franklin / Tori Franklin

Franklin admits she gets her positive attitude from her dad and gets her determination from her mother.

“Being able to push through things and just being strong willed, that really comes from my mother because she raised four of us. And my grandma, she helped my mother, so I was raised by strong black women and just make it every year was something that I knew that I had in me. It’s just in my blood.”

Tori placed 86th in the world, after moving to Chicago but with sheer determination and consistency rose to the fourth rank. And she doesn’t plan on slowing down.

Source: Tori Franklin / Tori Franklin

“I’ve been saying to myself, this year is that I want to be the boss bitch.” As for the Olympics, “My goal this year is to do everything a million percent harder and just do what it takes. I know I’m going to be on that team and this is me speaking it into existence. I’m going to be on that team. You’ll see me there.”

Tori Franklin broke the U.S. record in the triple jump with her 14.84 m (48 ft 81⁄4 in) performance at the International Meeting Region de Guadeloupe on May 12, 2018. (Wikipedia)